Heidi Trautmann

501 - A farewell note for my friend Ali Yalıman
4/26/2013

 

It is my birthday today and I start my new year with the loss of a friend. I still see his friendly face in front of me, hear him telling me stories that happened on the slippery boards of the world stage, hear him disclosing the wheelings and dealings of politicians and the dark deeds under the apparently clean cover of people in power and I still hear him laugh from all his heart in-spite of everything.

It was his world, the world of journalism, his daily food and he had the intimate knowledge where to dig.  I often sat there listening and thought under these conditions the world will go under within the next few days.

It is seven or eight years that I started working for Ali Yalıman; the first paper was Cyprus Times, the English sister newspaper of Kıbrıslı and the first interview I did for him was with Ali Nazmi Borova, the circus man and sculptor whose works in stone are still  to be seen along the Lapta-Girne road. We met again for a short time both working for Zoom Magazine and then on the very day Ali Yalıman brought his first copy of Cyprus Observer to the printing house I met him again and he asked me if I would like to join him in this task. We did 62 issues together, the 63rd will come out today, on April 27, which he directed from his bed in hospital, from which he hoped to be soon released.  I still hear him saying that he wanted to make positive journalism, not to bathe in dirty little stories of society, highlight the good things and try to entertain people and not to frighten them.

Ali Yalıman was a man who loved music and he loved Gülseren his wife, the pianist; how proud he was when she had her concert in Bellapais last year after so many years; how devastated he was when she had her breakdown some months ago and how dearly he looked after her.

We often used to talk about Munich where he had lived and worked for a while and how he enjoyed visiting the small jazz places in Schwabing, the so-called students’ quarter, an area I went to school and knew intimately. Today, when I go down the road and get my newspaper I will know that it is the last one with Ali Yalıman as director and editor-in-chief. 

Life is like a garden with two gates, by one you enter when you are born, the other you use when you return the leasing contract. During the years that are granted to you, you will try to cultivate your garden and make good harvests and when one day you close the last gate behind you,  you will know that you have left your garden in good order for the next generation to benefit from.

 

Thank you, Ali Yalıman, you were a good gardener! My thoughts are with Gülseren!


Ali Yaliman, Dr. Gabriella Guellil, German Ambassadress and Heidi Trautmann
Ali Yaliman, Dr. Gabriella Guellil, German Ambassadress and Heidi Trautmann


In times of ZOOM for my article "The Cactus Parliament" in the courtyard of the Parliament admiring Hikmet Ulucam
In times of ZOOM for my article "The Cactus Parliament" in the courtyard of the Parliament admiring Hikmet Ulucam's cacti


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A concert in Bellapais with members of the Music Foundation, Ilker and Rezzan Nevzat, Ali was very active for.
A concert in Bellapais with members of the Music Foundation, Ilker and Rezzan Nevzat, Ali was very active for.


A concert in Bellapais with members of the Music Foundation, Ilker and Rezzan Nevzat, Ali was very active for, next to him Gülseren Sadak, his wife
A concert in Bellapais with members of the Music Foundation, Ilker and Rezzan Nevzat, Ali was very active for, next to him Gülseren Sadak, his wife






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